The worst thing to happen to me this year was the K cup coffee machine we bought. Ok, it wasn’t the worst thing, but it got me hooked. We discovered Snapple Peach Iced Tea K Cups. I rarely drink anything but water, but I was seduced by these. First of all, the K cups are just so darn cute. And making that machine go is like playing with a toy. And the peach iced tea that comes out is just so magical. We started buying lots of boxes of it. Not cheap! This also meant we were throwing out a lot of those cute little K cups once they were empty. <insert guilt> The machine we bought to primarily use for serving coffee to guests had become a PROBLEM. I read the label of the peach iced tea and was not happy to see it had artificial sweeteners. Not good. So I decided to just make my own. It was a huge hit. The husband and son are just guzzling it by the gallon here so I’m making batches of it all the time. Now that I’ve got the routine down pat, I thought I would share it. What’s great about this is that you can play with the recipe and use any kind of tea (any flavor as well as decaf or regular) and any kind of fruit nectar to switch up the flavors. I buy the fruit nectar at my grocery store in the aisle with the Goya brand products and Hispanic products. They have peach, pineapple, mango and passion fruit flavors and they come in tall cardboard cartons. You can use loose tea if you prefer and then just pour the heated tea through a fine sieve when pouring into the pitcher. Here’s the insanely easy recipe. If you want your iced tea really strong, add more tea to the recipe.

10 cups water

1 cup sugar

8 tea bags (I have been using 3 green tea and 5 Irish breakfast tea, because I have a lot of these, but other flavors I’ve tried have been great as well)

1 1/2 cups fruit nectar (I’ve been using half peach and half mango)

Pour the water and sugar in a large pot and turn it on high. Pull the tags off the tea bags and put the bags in the water. Heat the water until it is about to boil (it’s fine if it starts to boil), stirring occasionally. Turn the heat off and let it steep for about 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Pour the fruit nectar into a gallon sized pitcher. Add the water. Stir. Allow to cool to room temperature then refrigerate. Serve cold, over ice. Before you blink it will be gone.